Nanjing Road & the Bund

Moving to Shanghai

Today we move to Shanghai.  Up at 0630 again, I once again did my shoulder rehab exercises before having a simple breakfast of egg dumplings filled pork in a soup.

Our hotel gifted us a generous selection of local biscuits as we checked out at 1000.  We ordered a car to take us to Tongxiang station, some 45 mins away.

Our G class train, departing at 1150, took only 35 mins to reach Shanghai Hongqiao station.

It was a 30 min metro ride to People’s Square where we managed to get into our hotel nearby around 1330.

The Vienna Hotel room was a bit small but kinda expected for the location, a few steps away from the Nanjing Road pedestrian mall.  As with my Vienna experience, the bedding and towels were as good as they can get.

We grabbed an assortment of snacks for lunch in a food court in the upper reaches of the neighbouring building before returning to the hotel to rest and do my knee rehab.

Nanjing Road & the Bund

Around 1630, we headed out to explore the Nanjing Road pedestrian street.  It has changed a lot since our visit in 2001 when there was more home electronics (e.g. TV) and whiteware (e.g. washing machines, fridges).  I remember saying that we saw more of those in one street compared to the whole of Auckland.

Now, there are more touristy shops, street food, gaming or e-sports shops, car showrooms and mobile tech showrooms.

We dropped into a couple of electric car and mobile showrooms. The quality and features of the Chinese products are now leading edge and while I typically don’t part easily with my money, I’m very tempted by all their offerings.

For dinner, we returned to our lunch location and had a bowl of Shanghai wontons.  They were small, as per the description.  It seems that wontons here come in a small or large version.

We continued our wander in a couple of malls before closing off our lazy day around 2030.